Thursday, August 7, 2014

How many times have you been asked, if you could bring back one car from the past, what would it be? Of course, the question is moot, and with the stratospheric cost of tooling and all the safety regulations it simply could not be done. But it makes for some darn good dreaming.

Well recently a fellow named Mark Lucas had just such a dream- except as the President of Shasta RV, he’s in a position to do more than dream. He’d been watching the classic RV and camper craze and wondering the best way to step into the water himself, so he went out and bought a 1961 Airflyte 16’ trailer and brought in a few engineers to study it and and they came up with an idea- they decided to reissue it.

It’s the exact same iconic shape from 1961, complete with the trademark Shasta winglets on the sides. It’s exactly the same size and roughly the same layout as the original, with the same one-piece roof skin and while there are mechanical improvements and modern A/C, and there were updated safety regulations that had to be met, in spirit and execution it’s as darn close to the original as you can imagine. He calls it a “90% replica”- true to the original design, but 100% modern in technology and usable with no safety or reliability concerns that you might have with a real 1961 trailer. It's even got a replica of the magazine rack (remember those? ) with the Shasta logo.

They’re making a run of 1,941 (the year they went into business) of the special Airflytes as a commemorative edition to celebrate their 75th Anniversary- although they’re only seventy-four for 2015. But hey, don’t let math skills get in the way of the coolest idea I’ve heard all month. They come in three two tone schemes- Seafoam Green, Buttercup Yellow, and Matador Red. Expect pricing to come in around the $15,000-$17,000 range. Production begins in September.

Best of all, wouldn’t it look perfect behind a certain Cadillac? Hats off to Mark and the team at Shasta. This is the coolest thing I've heard of all summer.

Check out this cool video tour of the reissued Airflyte:

Now if they'd do one in pink to match the Cadillac.Info and Photo credits: Shasta RV, Retro Renovations and Mount Comfort RV.